Slipknot is a Nu Metal (later Groove Metal) band from Des Moines, Iowa, known for their masks, nine-person membership, identical jumpsuits, and chaotic live performances. Each member is given a number from 0 to 8 (in the order that each member joined the band). They're sometimes referred to collectively as The Nine. They are one of the most successful and popular bands in the metal genre.

#?: Jay Weinberg: Drums (was intended to stay unconfirmed for a while for various reasons in spite of a preponderance of evidence in his favor; nevertheless, his identity was leaked in late 2014 by a former drum tech)

Notable Former Members

#1: Joey Jordison: Drums. (was in the band from its inception until December 2013. The reasons from his departure are unknown as at time of writing neither Jordison nor Slipknot can say why, but his new project Scar the Martyr and Music Is Politics are probably the reasons behind his leaving/getting kicked out.)

* #2: Paul "The Pig" Gray (1972-2010): Bass guitar. (Probably would have lasted longer if it wasn't for his untimely death.)

The band and the media around them provide examples of:

742617000027 (the UPC number for their EP Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat.) and its accompanying barcode are a standard decoration on their jumpsuits; "742617000027" is also the title of the first track on Slipknot.

Root and Thomson. Root is actually a little taller, but lanky; Thomson is bulkier.

Inverted with Jordison, who is by far the shortest member of the band.

Black Sheep Hit: "Snuff" from All Hope Is Gone is a slow, mournful ballad that sounds very different from Slipknot's usual stuff. It went on to become Slipknot's most successful single ever, reaching number 2 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.

Wilson is very skilled as a turntablist and is famous outside of Slipknot as DJ Starscream...but he's frequently gotten into fistfights with Crahan on stage, and broken Fehn's drum kit with his headbanging. He even broke both his feet by jumping from a piece of equipment, which Taylor later poked fun at by yelling "You broke your fucking feet, Sid!" while Wilson was on stage in a wheelchair.

Crahan hits everything, lights himself on fire, does backflips off equipment and has managed to bruise his pelvis and break his collarbones in the process, and more.

Limited Wardrobe: The jumpsuits, although when All Hope Is Gone came around each member came up with a unique costume design, as can be seen in the current page image. They now bounce back and forth between these getups and the jumpsuits.

Also, currently Alessandro and Jay, the new members, wear the same temporary mask, as the band feels that to immediately give them the same status as their predecessors would be seen as disrespectful.

The Merch: In perhaps one of the more ill-thought moves of their career, the band launched their own clothing line in 2008, titled Tattered and Torn after the song (a rather unfortunate name to be sure). Taking many cues from the Affliction brand, T&T doesn't explicitly specialize in Slipknot merch, but many designs. These are sold at HotTopic...

Mondegreen: "I wonder how why you can't see/Inside Michelle my shell I wait and bleed" from "Wait and Bleed".

"Before I Forget" will be making a comeback... on Rock Band 3 with Pro-modenote Actual strings guitar playing and two added cymbals.

As of December 2012, there are only 2 of over 2100 Harmonix-charted songs that have never been full-comboed on guitar.note hitting 100% of the notes without overstrumming or mishitting "Pulse of the Maggots" is one of the two.note To be fair, this is because both of the solos are charted in an incredibly haphazard and flat-out nonsensical manner that outright does not match the actual music whatsoever. Blame Harmonix for this one.

Paper-Thin Disguise: Weinberg. Root has gone on record as having vowed to never reveal the drummer's identity, as none of them are sure if he'll stick around or not; that being said, his height, hair color and length, and disclosed background elements line up with Weinberg, and the setup that was seen at Knotfest (SJC Custom snare, toms, and kicks and Zildjian cymbals, both of which have been used extensively by Weinberg over the course of his career; additionally, SJC is a fairly small-time manufacturer, so there's less of a chance for false positives) is probably the strongest indicator that the rumors are true. Sometimes called the worst-kept secret in music of 2014; within a few months of his joining, a disgruntled former drum tech leaked an itinerary list onto Instagram that finally confirmed both him and Alessandro Venturella.

Pig Man: Gray's mask during the Slipknot days was a pig head with a padlock in the nose.

Public Medium Ignorance: They don't and have never played Death Metalnote though it does show up in some of their influences, and they are known to be friends with various death metal acts, with Thomson in particular being known for his friendship with Dave Culross. Yet they've somehow become the public face of extremity in metal.note Though, their first album/demo, Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat, was pretty heavy and the closest they've come to being Death Metal

The Quiet One: Jones both uses and subverts this. While he can be chatty and usually talks to fans after concerts, he typically doesn't show up for group interviews or, if he does, usually only answers the question of what he would be doing if he weren't in a band: he would be out driving a forklift somewhere, or out killing people. It's been insinuated by the other band members that he is simply a very private person who is uncomfortable with fame and has cultivated a standoffish persona in an effort to get people to leave him alone.

Real Men Wear Pink: Crahan showed up to the 48th Grammys to accept Slipknot's award for "Before I Forget" wearing the only thing he could call fancy clothes: a pink jumpsuit.

Red Oni, Blue Oni: Slipknot is the red oni to Stone Sour's blue. While the latter still qualify as metal, they are much more melodic and much less chaotic. The members of Stone Sour are also much less likely to injure themselves on stage.

The Digipak special edition accompanying it (contains two bonus tracks and two demos). The hidden track "Eeyore" originally appeared after the final song "Scissors", while this version contains "Eeyore" after the final bonus track "Despise" (this version of "Scissors" is edited to include only the basic song).

The reissue months later after the copyright controversy concerning the song "Purity" (the lyrics were inspired by a copyrighted story which Taylor thought was true).

The Digipak special edition accompanying this version. Excludes "Purity" and the sample drama "Frail Limb Nursery" accompanying the removed track. This version includes "Get This", a faster version of "Spit It Out", and a version of "Wait and Bleed" mixed by producer Terry Date, along with a live performance of "Surfacing" as the final track. "Eeyore" is once again moved to a different track ("Surfacing" live) in order to appear at the very end of the album (appears after "Porn and Weed", which itself appears after "Surfacing" Live, making for three hidden tracks in a single track).

The 10th Anniversary Edition is effectively the definitive edition. It contains nearly every song mention above, including "Purity" ("Frail Limb Nursery" was not included, possibly because there literally wasn't enough room for it on the CD); "Eeyore" is finally made into a separate track (placed in the middle of the album). This edition contains "Snap" (a song only released on the demo version), three new remixes for "Wait and Bleed", "Surfacing" and "(sic)", and a live DVD.

To the point, a true 'Maggot' has bought this album three times: Original (contains "Frail Limb Nursery"), the reissue bonus edition (contains "Surfacing" live and "Porn and Weed") and the 10th Anniversary Edition (contains everything). Word to the wise, go download it instead.

You Are Number Six: Subverted. While they do use the numbers as monikers, every fan knows the members' names and they're not really secretive about it.

Their music provides examples of:

Album Title Drop: Twice in All Hope is Gone, both for the title track and during the opening track ".Execute."

Cluster F-Bomb: Slipknot and Iowa are rife with cursing; The Gray Chapter has a lot but is not quite as bad as the former two. In contrast, All Hope is Gone had just enough to earn a Parental Advisory label, and The Subliminal Verses was almost curse-free due to Taylor getting tired of claims that he couldn't write lyrics without profanities.

Everything Is an Instrument: Crahan + baseball bat + beer keg = instant percussion. Also, in one scene in the 10th anniversary DVD, Crahan is shown walking down a hallway dropping a metal pipe on the floor in a rhythmic pattern.

Lyrical Tic: Corey Taylor is quite fond of muttering "huh..." or grunting between lyrics or at the beginning of a verse (i.e. "huh...WE WILL BURN YOUR CITIES DOWN!") He also tended in earlier albums to pant heavily into the mic from the force of screaming so harshly. This can be heard in songs such as "Eyeless" and the outro of "The Blister Exists."

Mohs Scale of Rock and Metal Hardness: Softer songs a 6, softest songs a 5 and most songs a 7-8. On a bad day (in other words, good) they'll write something in the range of 9, while their live performances usually creep up to a 10. They do have at least one level 2 song in the form of "Vermilion Pt 2."

New Sound Album: From Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses onward, they began to use more traditional and melodic metal song structures (including several acoustic ballads), began to incorporate guitar solos and did not rely on electronics as heavily. That said, The Gray Chapter amps up the electronic and scratch work, although not back to pre-Vol. 3 levels.

Number of the Beast: "The Heretic Anthem" starts with an electronic voice counting "8, 7, 6, 6, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0...", then continues throughout the chorus.

If you're 555 then I'm 666!

Obsession Song: Both versions of "Vermilion", although more so the first. Also: "The Nameless", "Iowa", "The Virus Of Life" as well, in a somewhat...rape-ier kind of way. Not to mention "Gehenna" on All Hope is Gone, as well as "Prothestics" on the self-titled album. Corey enjoys writing about obsession.

Taylor acknowledges and confronts this in the Stone Sour song, "Freeze Dry Seal", admitting that while he may not be a flowery poet, that doesn't make his lyrics (and his beliefs) any less real. Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped at its best.

Surprisingly Gentle Song: Obsession Song or not, "Vermillion Pt. 2" is a very slow and gentle track that those more familiar with the band's nu-metal side and aggressive reputation would not have expected.note In fact, it's the song that inspired the trope. Also, "Circle" and "Snuff".

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